Many governments have employment programmes aimed at helping those temporarily between jobs and to measure the effectiveness of those programmes they have systems in place. Yet are these systems effective? In a recent survey, Accenture finds that almost one third of labour agency leaders in Europe, Asia and the US say that these programmes are not effective.

The study, carried out by Penn Schoen Berland for Accenture, involved 76 executives and managers in labour agencies in the US, France, Germany, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, the UK, India and Singapore.

The survey finds that of the agencies surveyed, 80% has a policy in place that seeks to measure the impact of employment programmes. Of those programmes, 29% of respondents indicate that the programme is “not very effective” or “not at all effective.” The biggest problem, according to 54% of respondents, is that programmes often lack the kinds of training and other resources to help jobs seekers get back on their own feet.

The vast majority (96%) of respondents prefers analytic type approaches to quantifying the success of programmes. These approaches are used by 81% of organisations to check the success of linking job seekers and potential employers, in 64% of checking the success of training and 60% of income support.

Although around 65% of surveyed organisations use analytics, 49% of those organisations respond that they lack the analytic resources and capabilities to deploy the analytics effectively. The biggest issue faced by companies is access to those skilled in analytics, cited by 78% of companies, followed by the quality of data at 68% and the right technology, cited by 61%.

“A top challenge for labour-agency managers, especially as data and technology capabilities continue to expand rapidly, is to cultivate the right skills and invest carefully to better measure the success of their jobs programs,” explains Rainer Binder, Managing Director of Accenture’s Global Employment Practice. “While most labour agencies currently use some analytics to gauge program success, there’s great potential to use analytics more effectively and in a more forward-looking way, which will enable them to improve the effectiveness of jobs programs going forward.”